1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a "wire-frame" contour bottle in which the interior portion comprises a thin high barrier collapsible plastic material and the exterior portion comprises a cage-like structure or wire frame structure which supports the interior collapsible plastic container which may be under stress from gaseous contents of the bottle under pressure when closed. The invention also relates to new and useful improvements in the process of manufacturing a contour bottle suitable for containing liquids such as carbonated beverages under pressure with carbon dioxide gas dissolved therein. It should be noted that the term "wire-frame" structure is not necessarily used to denote a pliable metallic strand but is used to indicate something which resembles a wire, as in slenderness or stiffness. As will be explained below, various materials can be used to make the wire-frame structure of the present invention, but these materials do not necessarily have to be metal.
2. Description of the Background Art
The concept of an outer rigid or semi-rigid supporting portion and an inner flexible, high barrier portion of a composite container is known in the art of container manufacture. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,840 discloses an improved bag-in-box (BIB) composite container wherein an inner bag is blow-molded inside the container's outer box. The inner layer is made from a preform of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), for example.
More recently, liquid containers having a rigid outer supporting portion and an inner collapsible portion with specific objects and improvements are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,344,045 and 5,385,269.
Conventional containers of outer rigid supporting structure with inner flexible collapsible material are well known and old in the art, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,636.